Mesh head patents, Roland vs. Yamaha

[mfrzrdrum]

I got a Musicians Friend catalog in the mail about a month ago. It had a review by Rick Long of the Yamaha DTXtreme. I quote:

“The RHP pads came with Remo Ambassador heads. Since the pads have a shell, they produce a small amount of sound like a practice pad. For silent practice or performing, mesh heads can be installed. A replacement foam pad with a waffled top is supplied with the RHP pads. This waffled pad is used underneath mesh heads in place of the standard foam. Due to patents by a competitor, Yamaha doesn’t supply RHP pads with mesh heads installed. I tried a mesh head on a 120SD snare pad. The minimal sound made by the Ambassadors was completely gone. Feel was excellent….” blah, blah, blah.

If this competitor (Roland I assume) holds the patent, why are there are so many other so many other companies selling products with a mesh head? Is it a gentlemans agreement between Roland and Yamaha? Does this Rick Long dude know what he is talking about? Why hasn’t Roland sued the pants off of Pintech and Hart?

[drmoze]

Not sure about this particular case, but there's a basic concept that goes hand-in-hansd with 'patents' called 'licenses.' Perhaps Yamaha said no, Pintech and Hart said 'yes'?

[jrcel]

Yamaha is a Japanese company, the patent Roland holds might pertain to companies manufacturing in Japan, not internationally. I don't know enough about international law to tell you for certain. Perhaps Roland feels these small companies don't pose as big a threat as Yamaha.

[szvook]

Actually Hart had mesh heads available before Roland had their mesh heads on the market. I had my mesh heads (single ply at that time) from Hart for 6 months before Roland showed theirs at NAMM. So I don’t know who copied whom?

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szvook

[sepdrums]

Interesting. I am going to take a look at the US patent site and see whats there. I know Al's Spacemuffins are there....

Erik
SEP

[jrcel]

The debue date means nothing, it's the patent file date.

[szvook]

Originally posted by jrcel:
The debue date means nothing, it's the patent file date.

True



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szvook

[cgrieves]

I don't think Roland has a patent on mesh heads at all, just a patent for their positional sensing system (using one piezo).

[jrcel]

We've already been through all this, yes Roland has a patent on mesh heads, there are a bunch of other posts somewhere on this sit pertaining to it.